(Hazleton, PA – June 29, 2012) – Following months of negotiations, CAN DO, Inc. this week entered into an agreement that will lead to an eventual transfer of its railroad system in Humboldt Industrial Park to Reading and Northern Railroad, the largest privately owned railroad company in Pennsylvania that has twice been named Regional Railroad of the Year by Railway Age magazine.

While CAN DO constructed and maintains the rail system in Humboldt Industrial Park, the service is currently provided by the Norfolk Southern railroad company under a contract that runs through 2016. Once that contract expires, Reading and Northern will replace Norfolk Southern in serving the park industries.

When CAN DO stepped up the plate almost 10 years ago to assist a company looking to relocate from New York state to the Hazleton area, the agency put its full force behind the plan and today considers this project to be a perfect illustration of how economic development should work.

In February, CAN DO unveiled its redesigned Web site, www.hazletoncando.com.

“We have worked very hard to make sure www.hazletoncando.com provides the most critical information that brokers, site selectors and companies look for when they’re searching for a new location for their client or business,” said CAN DO Vice President of Sales and Marketing Joseph Lettiere. “While we’re proud of the old site, we think visitors to our new site will find it to be easier to navigate, easier to read, and more informative than ever before.”

Officials in the Hazleton area have embraced the ability to extend the benefits of the Keystone Opportunity Zone program by granting full tax abatement through December 31, 2017, for eligible properties.

As further evidence of the foresight of those officials and through the support of the commonwealth, CAN DO also was assigned one of 15 new subzones throughout the state, which will abate taxes in that 350-acre tract through December 31, 2019.

As a result, nearly 650 acres of land in CAN DO industrial parks have been granted tax-free extensions through at least the end of 2017 under the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s renowned Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ) program.

In the case of the new KOZ subzone, those sites are tax-free through the end of 2019. Available KOZ sites include both commercial and industrial land parcels, as well as many industrial buildings.

Greater Hazleton’s growing food industry cluster was featured in the December 2009 issue of Global Corporate Xpansion magazine, a quarterly magazine for executives and site selectors planning to relocate a facility or expand operations.

The Hazleton area appears in a story entitled “Food Preparation’s Innovations.”